Coalition MPs in bid to find common agenda on European policy

Tory Eurosceptics believe some more centrist Liberal Democrats are desperate to avoid the Europhile label

Tory Eurosceptics believe they can make common cause with Lib Dem MPs such as Ed Davey (pictured) who is pushing for a liberal agenda in Europe. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian Martin Argles/Guardian

Informal talks between Tory Eurosceptic MPs and centrist Liberal Democrats are being planned in a bid to see if an unlikely common agenda can be formed on Europe.

The talks, involving mainstream Eurosceptics opposed to an EU membership referendum, had been planned ahead of David Cameron's decision to wield a UK veto at the EU summit in December, leading to a public split between the two coalition parties. But the Tory sceptics are determined to revive the plan insisting a section of the Liberal Democrat parliamentary party are desperate to avoid the label of Europhiles. They also claim Nick Clegg has instructed his office to draw up a list of powers that could be returned to national parliaments.

Figures such as the Liberal Democrat chief whip Alistair Carmichael and a group of south-west MPs such as Foreign Office minister Jeremy Browne, David Laws and Nick Harvey have all warned their own party must not be seen as starry-eyed uncritical supporters of the EU.

They fear the party will misjudge its support base especially in the south-west if the party is seen as obsessively pro-European, and would like to see the party position recalibrated.

But Tory Eurosceptics believe they can also make common cause with Ed Davey, the Lib Dem employment minister.

Davey has been pushing a strong liberal agenda in Europe, convening meetings of an eight-strong EU "Like-Minded Group for Growth" — including member states who share UK views on issues such as deregulation, the single market, innovation and external trade.

Members of the group include the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden.

Davey has also been a big supporter of a Danish mandating system that requires ministers to attend an EU select committee to be handed a negotiating mandate prior to attending key summits. The practical value of the mandating system is disputed, but Lib Dem MPs believe the idea is worth exploring.

Jeremy Browne has already urged the party not to be seen to be obsessing about Europe and political reform to the exclusion of all else. warned in an interview with the London Standard: "It would be a mistake for the Lib Dems to come to be known in the public minds as the party that in 2011 was the party that was in favour of AV and EU.

"I think there is a danger that we are defined by a relatively small set of issues that are relevant and significant but do not give a rounded picture of what the Liberal Democrats are in government in order to achieve."

Laws, effectively an unpaid minister for portfolio acting behind the scenes on behalf of the leadership, attempted in the wake of the summit to insist the case for EU reform must not be left to the Tories, arguing: "We must accept that the challenge for the EU is to do fewer things, but to do those things better — 'doing less to do more'. We should be leading a fight to reform the EU to make it more liberal, more democratic and more focused on the big international challenges, rather than on micro-meddling in national matters."

Carmichael, who resigned as Liberal Democrat Scottish spokesman in order to vote for a referendum on the EU Lisbon treaty, has also behind the scenes pressed Clegg to call for a rethink on the over centralised administration of the common fisheries policy.

Clegg's supporters have pointed out that while he had sharp tactical disagreements with Cameron over what he regarded as a premature use of the veto at the last EU summit he had endorsed the prime minister's call for protections for the City as the condition for Britain allowing the rest of the EU to sign a new treaty on EU fiscal coordination.

They point out that in a speech to the European parliament before the summit Clegg had produced a checklist of proposals for rebalancing of powers in the EU, without going as far as Cameron in calling for repatriation, a phrase that implies changes to the EU treaty.

Liberal Democrat proposals include closure of some smaller EU budgets such as youth policy, tourism, culture. The Lib Dems are also opposing the EU working time directive, as well as the use of health and safety to restrict working hours.